73 COMMON OTTER. 



Secures it between them, and commencing at the 

 shoulders devours the fish downwards, leaving the 

 nead and tail. While thus occupied, it is sometimes 

 visited by gulls and hooded crows, which, however, 

 do not venture to attack it, but wait until it has 

 finished its meal, contenting themselves with the 

 remnants. It is alleged that it destroys great quan- 

 tities of salmon, which may be the case when it 

 inhabits rivers or estuaries in which that fish is 

 abundant, but in the open sea it feeds on a variety 

 of fishes. Along the coast it finds a generally safe 

 retreat in coves of which the upper part is filled 

 with blocks of rock, or beneath large stones ; but 

 on rivers and lakes it seeks refuge among the roots 

 of trees, or burrows a hole for itself in the banks. 

 Although properly piscivorous, it has been known 

 to attack young domestic animals, and I found 

 the stomach of one killed in June filled with a 

 curious collection of larvae and earth-worms. 



The female is said by Mr Bell to go with young 

 nine weeks, and to produce from three to five young 

 ones, in March or April. I cannot confirm or re- 

 fute these assertions, but I have examined an indi- 

 vidual so young as to be still sucking, without the 

 lower incisors, and only 20J inches in length, which 

 was killed near the top of the river Don on the 

 25th November. At this early age the head is 

 round and flattened, the eyes placed so near the 

 nostrils that three lines drawn, the first from one 

 eye to the other, the second and third from each eye 

 to the middle point between the nostrils, form an 



